Cargo Bike FAQs

When riding around town on our Tern GSD or Bakfiets.NL or Yuba Mundo cargo bikes, we get a lot of questions. People stop, stare, wave, smile, & comment on our big bikes every time we use them. I thought I'd compile some of the most common questions we get here, just in case you're wondering the same things too.

Isn't it heavy? 

A Yuba Mundo is heavier than a regular bike, yes, but about the same as or lighter than the weight of a bike plus a double child trailer. To give you specifics, the Yuba without accessories is 48 pounds. Your average regular bike is 25-30 pounds. Child trailers are around 25 pounds.

The Bakfiets, on the other hand, is about 88 pounds. I got used to it pretty quickly, but I was accustomed to riding the big Yuba Mundo already.

My Tern GSD is around 70 pounds with the various accessories I have on it. As it has electric assist, the weight really doesn't make much difference to me & the low centre of gravity because of the mid drive, low battery position & smaller wheels, means it's quite easy to manoeuvre.

All three bikes have a decent gear range. The Yuba has a 21 speed Shimano mountain bike setup, the Bakfiets has a Nexus 8 speed internal gear hub, & the Tern has a 1x10 Shimano Deore derailleur. I find getting up the hills to be doable on the two "acoustic" bikes, & easy with the electric assist Tern.

How long is it?

Our Yuba is about 88" long (the same length as a Smart Car, we checked!) & the Bakfiets is about a foot longer--255cm, I believe. The Tern is only the same length as a regular bike, 6'. Cargo bikes vary a lot in length, from the compact midtails like my Tern GSD to the cadillacs of the bike world, like a Riese & Muller Packster 80. If you want to carry yours in a car or ever get into an elevator or on transit with it, you'll want to know the length.

My friend Genevieve of Genepedia is also a cargo bike afficionado (owner of several different kinds herself) & has started a document listing the length of various different cargo bikes on the market. Visit her blog for a link to the cargo bike length Google Document here.

Do you have an electric motor?

Yes, on the Tern GSD. The kids just keep getting bigger & my osteoarthritis isn't getting any better, so in 2019 we added the e-cargobike to our fleet. Oliver still rides the Bakfiets fairly often, but the Tern is our main kid hauler & grocery getter.

Is it hard to ride?

The Yuba was quite easy to get used to--it feels a lot like a regular bike, even with two or three kids on it. The wheel base is like a motorcycle. Our Bakfiets, on the other hand, required a some getting used to because it's about a foot longer than the Yuba (same exact length as a Smart car), it has linkage steering (there's a long bar connected from the front fork to the handlebars under the box) plus different weight distribution, being a front loader. The Tern GSD is only the same length as a regular bike, but the smaller wheels & peppy assist make it a different ride than an "acoustic" non-cargo bike. Really not a huge adjustment for me, as I was used to riding heavy bikes with a smaller front wheel.

Is it custom made?

Not at all! The Yuba Mundo & all the accessories are right off the shelf at the Bike Doctor. We found our Bakfiets (also totally stock parts & accessories) used on Craigslist, & the only distributor I know of in Canada is Urkai, in Burlington, Ontario. The Tern came right out of a store too, Cit-E-Cycles.

There are quite a lot of other cargo bike makers out there & more stores are starting to sell them here in Vancouver. This post has a list of the local distributors/builders that I know of: Where to Buy a Cargobike in Vancouver.

What accessories do you use?

My Tern GSD has two seat pads, panniers, foot rails, rear passenger handlebars, a Transporteur rack, an Atlas kickstand, all from Tern. I added a plastic Basil crate to the front rack, I use RockBros pogies in the colder months, & an Abus frame lock on the front fork.

The Mundo is fully kitted out with Yuba accessories. The massive panniers are GoGetters. Our kids have grown out of their child seats (L stopped using his at age 4, B refused to be strapped in at age 2), so both of them sit on SoftSpot cushions on the rear deck. We also have LegUp foot pegs & HoldOn bars to help the smaller kid stay secure on the bike when we're riding.

We often used Yuba's cargo straps to attach an umbrella stroller to the rear running boards. My favourite extra accessory has to be the BreadBasket, however. More on why my Bread Basket is awesome here. Newer versions of the Yuba Mundo come standard with wheel skirts, 'deflopilator', & the double kickstand standard, but they bear mentioning. All three are essentials, I'd say, but the StandAlone kickstand really stands out (ha!). Full review of the StandAlone here.

On our Bakfiets, the kickstand is also standard & awesome--a wide, four legged, ultra stable stand attached under the box that allows the kids to get in & out without me holding the bike. The rear rack carries 50kg (or probably more) & I used to sit on it when I'm at the playground with the kids before we added a rear seat on it. We also have a rain canopy which keeps the kids completely dry & warm in winter. I made a vinyl covered seat cushion for the bench & have added a phone mount & cup holder on the handlebars.

Where can I get a cargo bike in Vancouver?

Cargo biking is catching on in Metro Vancouver, so more & more bike shops are starting to sell them. I collected a list of the ones I know of in the city of Vancouver in Fall 2016: Where to Buy a Cargo Bike in VancouverWhere to Buy a Cargo Bike in Vancouver. The used market is also picking up, so keep an eye on sites like Craigslist, or join the Vancouver Family Biking Facebook group to help you find a deal.

Was it expensive?

Compared to a big box store bike, yes. But a cargo bike does way more than a cheap department store bike could ever do: it's a car replacement. However, a Yuba Mundo or Bakfiets is a fraction of the cost of owning & maintaining a car.
Here's how it stacks up to some other forms of transportation:

• Tern GSD S10 $5200 + accessories  $1200 + second battery $1100 + five years maintenance $1500 = $9000 including tax
• Yuba Mundo $1600 + bags, front basket, & kid seats $900 + five years maintenance $1000 = $3500 (including tax!)
• Bakfiets.NL $3500 + rain canopy $350 + five years maintenance $1000 = $5043 including tax
• Five years of one-zone bus pass for one parent (kids under 13 are free) = $6015 
• Carsharing with Modo, short trips two to three times a week, for five years = ~$12,500
• Owning & driving a compact car for five years = ~$43,000 (BCAA car cost calculator)

There are other savings too, that are hard to factor in, like the health benefits from the extra exercise you'll get riding everywhere (yes, even with electric assist, research shows people still get exercise), the fun you'll have while doing it... Also, the numbers above are just for five years. If you calculated the costs over ten years, the savings of using a cargo bike rather than a car would be up to $90,000!

I did a bit of forensic accounting & figured out our transportation costs for 2020. Read all about it here to see how much it costs to bike & using carsharing in Vancouver.

But does it really replace a car?

Most trips by car are just a few kilometres, especially if you live in the city. To give you some specific examples of places we've been with the cargo bikes:
Our house to the Vancouver Aquarium is 8km, about a 35-minute ride, a bit faster than the bus.
Costco run: about 4km, 10-15 minutes there, 15-20 back with a full load of groceries & kids (see photo at right).
Confederation Park in Burnaby: 10km, about 50 minutes there, a little faster home.
Kitsilano Beach: 6km, about 25 minutes.
The kids' school: 3km each way, 10 minutes.

With the electric assist, our travel times are even shorter. Generally about 30% faster than the Google biking directions estimates.

How much stuff can the bikes carry? 

The Tern GSD can carry about 440 pounds including rider. I'm not sure what my heaviest load was, probably a haul from Costco. Even with the electric assist, the heaviest loads do slow me down on the hills, but it's much easier than without a motor. 

The official cargo capacity of the Yuba Mundo is 200kg (440 pounds), plus rider. We've tested this by loading up with about 300 pounds of paving stones plus 40 pounds of kid, then riding a relatively flat kilometre. The bike was not easy to balance with that kind of weight, so it isn't something we'd likely do often. (See image at right) When loaded with 100-150 pounds of Costco groceries, it's pretty manageable. We've also carried long objects like 7' shelves, 10' pieces of lumber, & even two 4'x8' sheets of corrugated plastic. Typically, we have 90 pounds of kids, plus 10-20 pounds of gear (swim bag or backpacks, lunch, umbrella stroller, etc) loaded on it.

The Bakfiets has a lower official capacity: 50kg on the rear rack & 82kg in the box, plus rider. What's interesting, is that the bike handles better with weight in the box. I've carried many Costco grocery hauls, up to three children (though it could carry more), equipment to set up a table, tent, plastic bollards & booth at Car Free Day, plus a kitchen table.

How many people can these cargo bikes carry? 

Generally the Tern just carries two kids on the back, occasionally we've squeezed a third on there. I've also ridden with an adult on the back once in a while, which is fun.

A few times we have ridden with the entire family on the Yuba--one parent plus five-year-old on the SoftSpot seat pad, toddler in her seat behind them & the other parent pedaling--but only a few blocks in a relatively flat area. It worked pretty well for a date night with just the two of us on it. Where the bike excels is carrying little kids: two five-year-olds could easily fit on the rack, plus the toddler in her seat behind them. Now that the baby seat is gone, it's easy to fit three kids on the back.

The Bakfiets has a little bench in the back of the box with harnesses for two kids. We could also have one or two small kids in the front end of the box, sitting on the floor. We've used the front end to split the kids up when they were scrapping. Another person could sit on the rear seat that's mounted on the rack.

Do the kids like it?

Yes! Both kids love riding our cargo bikes. They wave to all the people who are ooh-ing & ahh-ing over the bike. They both have a great view of the world going by, unlike in their car seats or on the bus. They can chat easily with our current setup (both kids sitting on seat pads on the back rack). I can easily stop on a dime wherever to tend to their needs, or stop to watch something interesting that catches their eye (construction sites, squirrels, or public art, as seen in the photo on the right).

The Bakfiets soon became their favourite when we got it--the kids like being in front, I think L likes not having to hold on so he can have a snack or read a book & they both liked the novelty of a different cargo bike. Sitting in there is sort of like a little living room. L used to eat his bowl of oatmeal in the bakfiets on the way to school. If we are coming home late, they can lie down in the box & cuddle up with blankets & pillows.

Can you take it on the bus/train?

Yes! ebikes are now allowed on transit in Metro Vancouver & area, & the Tern GSD is well within the official length limits. It doesn't fit that well on the front rack of buses, so I haven't done that, but it's been on the Seabus & Skytrain many times.

The Yuba Mundo has an extended wheelbase, so it's too long to fit on the bike racks on buses. It does just squeeze into most elevators at Canada Line stations (we've used the ones at Brighouse, Lansdowne, Broadway/City Hall, but NOT the elevators at King Edward Station, because you enter one side & exit the other). It's easy to wheel the Yuba into the bike area on the Canada Line trains.

The Bakfiets, on the other hand, is about eight & a half feet long (255cm), plus it looks very different from a regular bike, so I doubt we'd get it on the train.

What about when it rains?

We ride rain or shine. This is 'Raincouver', after all. We wouldn't get out much between September & June if we didn't bike in the rain. On the Yuba Mundo, both kids wear rain suits & gumboots, which keeps them quite dry, except for faces & hands. They are used to riding in the rain--both have since they were babies--so they don't mind it. I wear a rain poncho & gumboots, then sunglasses if it's really pouring, so I don't get water in my eyes as I'm riding. When the bike is parked, if we can't find undercover parking, I put a clear plastic cover over the baby seat & seat pad on the rack to keep them dry. It's actually just the case/bag thing that one of the carseats came in. Stroller rain covers work well for this too. The giant panniers we have for the Yuba (GoGetter bags, they're called) are waterproof, so the groceries or whatever we've packed in there stays dry.

The Bakfiets really shines in the rain & the cold--the clear canopy covers up the box completely so the kids don't even need raincoats. It also functions like a faring, keeping my legs dry as I ride.

How often & how far do you ride your cargo bike?

It varies, but I'd say I ride five to six days a week. Most of our riding is the school run--6km round trip, with occasional forays five to 15 kilometres from home when we go to the beach, or Stanley Park, etc. Like most people in North America, most of our errands are quite close to home so riding the big bikes is not a big deal. Riding to Science World only takes about ten minutes. It's about a half hour to Stanley Park. Biking groceries home from Costco takes about 20 minutes. We don't ride it everywhere--when we visit family in the suburbs, we take a car for the 35 kilometre trip. We occasionally take the bus too.

How does a Yuba Mundo longtail compare to a front loading bakfiets style bike?

I find that longtails handle much like a regular bicycle, & midtails (shorter longtails like the Tern GSD) so you can hop on & ride without much of a period of adjustment. With bakfietsen, the smaller front wheel & linkage steering make it feel very different to a regular bike--a little more touchy, especially at slow speeds. Same with the Tern. The Bakfiets is longer than the Yuba Mundo or the Tern GSD, which makes the turning radius huge. Because the weight is lower on a bakfiets, it's easier to balance & I think requires less upper body strength to manage. However, the weight is all in front of the handlebars, so you use your arms more to stablize--I think riding my longtail I use my core muscles & legs more to stabilize the bike.

In terms of passengers, longtails are brilliant for older kids & adults who can climb on the rack & swing a leg over. Bakfietsen are better for small children & pets. When it comes to cargo, bakfietsen excel at carrying bulky loads like furniture or boxes, keeping the load centred. Yuba Mundos are pretty awesome for sheer beefy weight capacity--if you have a load that can be divided between the two rear bags or racks, you can load the thing up with 440 pounds. However, even with a lopsided load on the Mundo, as long as it's secured well, I found I automatically adjusted the balance with no problem (example: carrying a 50-60 pound compound mitre saw on one side, maybe ten pounds of plastic sawhorses on the other, plus 70 pounds of children on the rack).